Postgraduate study

Whether you want to gain new professional qualifications, change your career direction or pursue a personal ambition, our postgraduate degrees will steer you to places you never imagined.

Where will postgraduate study lead you?

Amira shares the amazing things that her master’s degree has led her to do.

What is a postgraduate degree?

A postgraduate degree is study that you undertake after the completion of a bachelor's or undergraduate degree. Postgraduate study can take the form of coursework or research in your area of interest.

Why do postgraduate study at Sydney?

Our postgraduate coursework and research degrees offer far more than knowledge. You’ll join leading thinkers to challenge the known and explore the unknown, in a stimulating environment that encourages both learning and networking.

We give you access to leading lecturers, research supervisors, industry networks and research and teaching centre staff from around the world. This is one of the reasons why we are ranked first in Australia and fifth in the world for graduate employability, and why we are regularly ranked in the top 50 universities worldwide (2018 QS World University Rankings).

Postgraduate study options

Master’s degrees are ideal if you need specialised knowledge and skills, and want to:

take the next step in your career

gain professional qualifications for your next job

upskill for your current role

develop academic expertise in your chosen field

expand your horizons.

They typically require between one and two years of full-time study (two to four years part time). If you can’t commit to a full-time master’s degree straight away because of, say, family or work commitments, we also offer the flexibility of part-time study for domestic students.

Graduate diplomas and graduate certificates are usually based on master’s degrees and offer a subset of the master's units.

They are an alternative worth considering if you:

want to try out postgraduate study

would like to increase the breadth of your expertise and knowledge

don’t meet the admission criteria for a master’s degree.

Once you finish the graduate certificate (usually six months of full-time study) you may then be able to progress to the equivalent graduate diploma (usually one year full time) and/or master’s degree. A graduate certificate or diploma is also an excellent option if you don't want to commit to a full master's, but still need a solid grounding in your chosen field.

We offer several higher degrees by research, each providing the opportunity to pursue your interest with academic rigour and engage with academics who are international leaders in their fields. A research student undertakes a major thesis in a specialised area, supervised by a staff member, with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) the highest qualification attainable in Australia.